Ben Watts

At the end of 2014, Community Oriented Correctional Health Services (COCHS) received funds from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to develop nine case studies on data-sharing between the criminal justice and the health care sectors to promote continuity of care.

Passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act in 2009 spurred an unparalleled investment in the nationwide adoption of health information technology. One of the chief aims of HITECH is to improve coordination and continuity of care through data-sharing.

Criminal justice and behavioral health care providers, however, have been passed over by this technological wave. We developed nine case studies as a way to provide insights from a range of jurisdictions and organizations and inform data-sharing efforts in other communities.

Topic
In March 2013, the DOC contracted with Community Oriented Correctional Health Services (COCHS) to help the Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) determine how best to design a contract for correctional health care services, in alignment with ongoing federal and state health reforms. This case study describes the policy environment that prompted the Vermont DOC’s health care system, in partnership with community-based organizations, to develop the first statewide performance-based Request for Proposals (RFP) and subsequent contract for correctional health care services.